Manatee County is buying forest land around an old cemetery. Here’s why 

Manatee County leaders have voted to buy two new pieces of land with the county’s voter-backed conservation fund.

A purchase of several acres of forest land at the edge of Rye Preserve, a nature preserve in Parrish, will create a buffer between the conservation area and encroaching development, county staff say. The land buy is also meant to shield Rye Cemetery, a last remnant of the Rye community that once existed along the Manatee River.

The other purchase will increase the size of Crane Park in Myakka City by about 50% and allow the county to address flooding issues at the park, which offers a playground and picnic shelters.

In a 2020 referendum, residents overwhelmingly voted to tax themselves a small amount per year to fund conservation purchases in Manatee County. The effort has started coming to fruition over the last year as the county has added lands big and small to its conserved list.

Manatee County to buy land near cemetery

Manatee County will pay a property management company $335,000 for 4.5 acres of land adjacent to Rye Preserve in Parrish.

The wooded area also surrounds the Rye Cemetery, the only obvious remnant of the Rye community that once existed in northwest Manatee County.

The beginnings of the town were established by white settlers in the 1860s following the Third Seminole War. The war was the U.S. government’s final major violent push to remove the Seminole people from Florida, their ancestral home for thousands of years, as white settlers moved in and claimed land. Many Seminoles were killed or forcibly relocated to the South Central U.S., but some escaped into the Everglades, remaining unconquered — ancestors of the modern-day Seminole Tribe of Florida.

The town of Rye was named for Erasmus Rye, a Virginia native who fought in the Third Seminole War and later as a Confederate soldier before settling in the area, historians say.

The settlement eventually grew into a sizable community with dozens of homes, stores, a church, school and post office and the first bridge over the Manatee River. But it didn’t last long. Historians credit the end of the steamboat era and the effects of the Great Depression with Rye’s eventual decline into a ghost town by the late 1920s.

The passage of time and development in the area have erased almost all traces of Rye, except for the cemetery.

County staff say the purchase will protect the area’s historic significance while also conserving a quality environmental area, adding to the 530-acre Rye Preserve.

The hardwood forest is home to gopher tortoises, and the Rye Branch stream, a tributary of the Manatee River, flows through part of the property, according to county staff.

“Although a small area from a conservation perspective, the property ranks very high in terms of habitat rarity, habitat quality, water resource protection and connectivity to other natural lands,” a county report says.

The area’s natural and cultural history is further detailed at the Rye Preserve Nature Center, which is open to the public by appointment.

Crane Park in Myakka City to expand

The county will also spend $420,000 for over 13 acres of land in Myakka City to expand Crane Park.

Located along the Myakka River, the 27-acre park typically floods during the rainy season, making it unusable for residents.

But county staff say the new land is on higher ground and will allow them to move recreation to drier areas.

About half of the addition is open forest and half is wetlands, a county report says.

Staff say there is an opportunity to restore habitat and improve water quality on the property with help from grant funds.

Big Waters Land Trust, formerly Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, helped the county secure purchase of the property from the Cannon family.

“We hadn’t had a lot of county facilities out east until this type of purchase,” said Commissioner Carol Ann Felts, who represents the Myakka area. “I hope that we will enjoy that additional part of the park.”

What’s next for conservation program?

Commissioners unanimously approved both land purchases during a meeting last week.

In a presentation to the board, Debra Woithe, the county’s conservation lands manager, described them as “small but important” green spaces. But she said bigger properties are on the way.

“Yes, we are still working on the larger, more connected properties, including conservation easements,” Woithe told the board. “These just happened to be the two that are at a point in our queue where they’re ready for your approval.”

County staff decide on potential land purchases with help from a volunteer group, the Environmental Lands Management and Acquisition Advisory Committee. If a piece of land meets their criteria and a price agreement can be reached with the owner, the land buy goes to the county commission for final approval.

Other properties up for consideration can be viewed on the county’s website.